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Show Legal Lines Legislature to discuss custody bill By TAMARA J. HAUGE Editor's Note: Legal Lines author Tamara J. Hauge is a practicing attorney with the legal firm Dan Adamson and Associates. She specializes in domestic law, as well as general practice. Tamara is featured regularly on the KALL radio program "Legal Eagles," and is counsel for several parental right groups in the Salt Lake Valley. She can be reached at her firm, S2S0 S. 300 W., Suite 255, Salt Lake City, Utah 84107, or by telephoning 262-5885. Her column is a regular feature of the Davis County Clipper. A joint custody bill recently received the approval of the Senate Rules Committee of the Utah Legislature. The bill, sponsored by Rep. G. LaMont Richards, provides that there is a presumption in favor of joint custody if the judge finds three things. First of all the couple must both agree to joint custody; second, the couple must appear capable of implementing joint custody; third it must appear in the best interests of the children to grant joint custody. Practically speaking, if this bill were passed, what effect would it have on the custody laws of Utah? First of all, it may encourage judges to grant joint custody to a couple who wants joint custody. Although there is no law against joint custody, and many judges have been granting joint custody for years, other judges refuse to allow it. At the Senate Rules Committee hearing, the chairperson of the Domestics Relation Section of the Utah Bar testified that on several occasions she has presented pre-sented a joint custody stipulation to a judge, and has had the judge refuse to implement the stipulation. He has instructed the attorneys to change the stipulation to reflect that one of the parties has sole custody while the other party has liberal visitation visita-tion rights. It is just this situation that the bill seeks to address. The bill will allow a couple the chance to be granted joint fj custody if they both want it. At the hearing, many opponents objected to the bill because they claimed that joint custody does not work, and results in increased litigation when the couple cannot agree on basic decisions deci-sions involved in raising the children. The Senate Committee, however, felt that this may be the case where a couple does not want joint custody, but has it forced upon them. The joint custody bill approved by the Committee does not provide for any presumption in favor of joint custody unless the couple agrees to it. Members of the Committee also remarked that many day to day decisions regarding the rearing of children are all ready being litigated even in sole custody situations. Couples return to court with disagreements such as whether a child should have braces, whether one of the parties has an ( ? w ; f ft - i X -1: , - obligation to take a child to church, and whether a child should participate in extra-curricular activities such as soccer. Disagreements Dis-agreements of every kind imaginable are being brought into the court system under the sole custody situation, therefore it is hard to see how joint custody would increase litigation. The Committee also pointed out that it had examined numerous studies which establish that joint custody does not increase-litigation. increase-litigation. The joint custody bill does not require that each party have the children half of the time. The parties may decide upon any reasonable arrangement which appears to be practical. Some couples implementing joint custody in the past have alternated physical custody, and others have agreed that one parent should have physical custody most of the time but that both parties have equal say in major decisions such as education, religion and health care for the child. The bill also provides that a couple may implement mediation to resolve disputes rather than the court system, and such a provision would be wise for any couple seeking to try joint custody. Obviously, where there are two parties making decisions, deci-sions, there is a possibility of stalemate, and this would necessitate necessi-tate a trip back to court if some alternate form of dispute resolution resolu-tion is not agreed to. The Senate Rules Committee agreed that joint custody would not work for every divorcing couple, and it may only work for a small percentage of all couples obtaining a divorce in Utah, but for those couples wishing to give it a try, the Committee felt that Utah laws should allow joint custody, and should encourage cooperation by approving the bill. Studies conclusively show that children of divorced parents benefit from continued involvement in-volvement of both parents. If granting joint custody to a couple allows both parents to feel they are important in the child's life, and encourages continued involvement, then the joint custody bill will benefit the children of Utah and will help to prevent the many tragic psychological problems experienced by children of divorce. |